Man high on drugs at time of SA murders

A man was high on a cocktail of drugs when he shot dead two other men he falsely believed were out to get him, a court has been told.

Shane Shove was paranoid and delusional at the time of the killings, believing the men had come to take his drugs and do him harm.

"He genuinely believed he was seriously at risk. That they had come to his property to steal his drugs and cause his death," defence counsel Mark Griffin told the South Australian Supreme Court on Thursday.

Shove's bizarre behaviour continued after the shootings with him taking more drugs.

It was not until the next day that he went to see his lawyer and handed himself into police.

The 44-year-old later pleaded guilty to murdering Christopher Bennet Sandison, 41, and Philip Jonathon Thomas, 40, at his Sandalwood property, east of Adelaide.

The pair were among a group of people who had gone to the property to spend the weekend and were gunned down within minutes of each other in April last year.

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Mr Griffin said Shove had been a drug taker since the age of 15 and had a long history of paranoid delusions while on drugs.

He asked the court to take into account Shove's guilty pleas, noting he could have elected to "roll the dice" and take the matter to trial given the high stakes.

He said the case did not involve some of the more evil elements of other double murders such as gangland killings and urged Justice Trish Kelly to show his client some mercy when imposing a non-parole period.